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Employers Council on Flexible Compensation Comment Letter to Chairman of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means, on Repealing 'Use-It-Or-Lose-It' for Health FSAs (PDF)

"Under the use it or lose it rule, health care FSA participants must either use all of their FSA dollars or forfeit them at the end of the plan year. ECFC has long supported efforts to overturn this rule either through legislative action such as the cash-out approach envisioned in the bipartisan H.R. 1004, the Medical FSA Improvement Act, or a 'roll over' put in place through regulatory action, which we fully believe the Administration has the authority to undertake."

Employers Council on Flexible Compensation Comment Letter to EBSA on Proposed Amendments to Excepted Benefits Regs (PDF)

Topics include: Clarification of Application of Excepted Benefits Rule to Stand-Alone Self-Funded Dental or Vision Only Plans; Availability of Health FSAs to Employees without Access to Employer-Provided Health Coverage; Technical Clarification for Proposed Limited Scope Wraparound Excepted Benefit; and Application of Excepted Benefits Rule to Wellness Programs.

From the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation: Text of Extensive Comments on Proposed Cafeteria Plan Regs (PDF)

37 pages; filed November 5, 2007. Very well-written: clear, precise; includes explanation of issues and a detailed suggested revision for each issue.

Supreme Court's ACA Decision Reaffirms Need for Flexible Benefit Plans for Health Care Solutions (PDF)

"The Supreme Court's decision upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reaffirms the need for employer-based plans to operate efficiently and effectively to provide the most valuable coverage possible to employees through flexible benefit and individual account plans, and the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation remains committed to advocating for these tax-advantaged accounts. ECFC believes the ACA creates an environment in which the Administration should exercise its authority to dispense with some archaic benefit regulations, such as the flexible spending account (FSA) 'use it or lose it' rule."

ECFC Comment Letter to CMS and HHS on Proposed Standards for Essential Health Benefits, Actuarial Value, and Accreditation, Including Request for Extension of Comment Period (PDF)

"[G]iven the proposed rule's significant implications, ECFC respectfully requests that the Department provide for at least a 60-day comment period.... Despite working diligently to digest the proposed rule and prepare this response, [the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation] -- along with any number of stakeholders -- could benefit from a longer comment period, which will help ensure that the comments and recommendations received by HHS are well-informed, constructive, and complete."

ECFC Comment Letter to IRS on about Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (PDF)

"We believe that Congress did not intend that coverage of excepted benefits would be considered group health coverage causing an employer to be unable to offer a QSEHRA to its employees.... [IRS Notice 2017-67 provides] that an employer would not be eligible to offer a QSEHRA if it provides current employees with continued access to amounts which accumulated in an HRA in previous year or carryover amounts in an FSA ... This is counterproductive to the policy behind consumer-directed health accounts[.]"

ECFC Statement on Two-Year Delay of Cadillac Tax (PDF)

"While the ECFC views this delay measure as an interim achievement ... it stands by its vital commitment to repealing or revising the tax as soon as possible. Among those most harmed by the Cadillac tax are Americans who rely on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to set aside pretax dollars to help them better manage their healthcare costs during a time of rising premiums, deductibles, and copayments. This is because consumers ' own pre-tax dollars count toward the thresholds set by the Cadillac tax."

ECFC Comment Letter to DOL on Application of Fiduciary Rule to HSAs (PDF)

"ECFC members believe that to impose the same fiduciary requirements for HSAs as are imposed on [IRAs] is administrative overreach by the Department. The Department can justify its need to regulate IRAs under the Fiduciary Rule since IRAs frequently are a conduit for ERISA-covered retirement plans. The same cannot be said of HSAs.... If the Department does not agree with ECFC's re commendation that HSAs should not be subject to the Fiduciary Rule, the Department should permit HSAs to be eligible for the platform provider exception in the Prohibited Transaction Exceptions."

ECFC Comment Letter to EEOC on Proposed Overtime Pay Regs under FLSA (PDF)

"ECFC is concerned that amounts allocated by the employer to an employee's account under a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) may not be exempt from FSLA unlike other health plans arrangements established by an employer and would request clarification under the final regulations that HRAs be treated similar to other employer-provided health benefit plans."

ECFC Letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Employee Benefits Provisions in the Unified Framework for Tax Reform (PDF)

"ECFC believes that any cap of the employer exclusion is bad for employees and will result in employers curtailing the maintenance of consumer-directed health accounts, particularly those accounts funded through employee salary deductions through a cafeteria plan.... [T]he enhanced Child Tax Credit could work in concert with the dependent care assistance FSAs to provide assistance in financing child care expenses for all working Americans.... While delay of the effective date of the Cadillac Tax is helpful in the short run, delay will only slow the trend of employers eliminating or curtailing employee contributions to FSA and HSA; only complete repeal of the Cadillac Tax or the exemption of employee contributions from the calculation of the tax will stop this trend."